Crusades
Perhaps You Deliver This Judgment With Greater Fear Than I Receive It

THE REVIEW

In the mind of a few naive individuals, Canada is a quiet place, Mounties, polar bears (further north), great lakes, and laws that... who knows. As far as music goes, people always remember the wrong songs. Yet, even there, some people make noise.

The charming unlucky little brothers of the USA...

Let's go to the mall (cit.).

No, this is something different. Stuff that some there know how to do, just like everywhere else. So the fact that they come from Canada doesn't matter at all.

Crusades emerged from the underground of Ottawa and from the ranks of some already seasoned rabble-rousers. Former members, among others, of Buried Inside, which will perk the ears of Post-core lovers. A different offering, yes, but similar in the decision to rely on a stellar concept.

The 2011 debut outlined a proposition consisting of very straightforward punk rock, with very Lo-fi soundscapes reminiscent of the Adolescents and various proto-melodic hardcore works. This came with an overall particularly shadowy mood and short, simple, and direct lyrics stemming directly from the thematic core of the band's production: antitheism, an antitheism revealed as a key to breaking chains and giving new dignity to human beings and living creatures, trampled upon, minimized, and dishonored by a proprietary attitude towards them. Religion increasingly becoming public enemy number 1, in short. The debut had its merits but definitely lacked the grip that appears in this second album.

The feeling underpinning the record is the same but is presented with greater maturity and incisiveness. It is a concept centered on the figure of Giordano Bruno seen as an anti-Christian martyr, an archetype of every modern free thinker, philosopher, and artist as defined by the band. A reflection that traverses the ideas, concepts, conflict, and challenge of a man who fought organized religion in the name of progress, up to the most tragic epilogue, becoming a martyr and a symbol.

The album's lyrics are certainly aided by a well-targeted concept and follow an excellent ascending climax that perfectly traverses the protagonist's life and reflection, just like the more refined musical aspect that in the first album assumes increasingly intense and tense sounds with a less Lo-fi production than in the debut. It can be said that everything sounds better than in the first chapter, with more incisive and original melodies sometimes reminiscent of illustrious colleagues like Propagandhi and always good and not trivial. It is strange to use the terms “atmospheric," "atmosphere" to describe a Punk Rock album, but the concept here is rendered very well with the right tension and with sounds that truly evoke a climate of challenge against authority and arrogance. David will fall defeated by Goliath, but his defeat will show that challenging the giant is not only a possible gesture but also a necessary one and that with a bit of luck and time, it will also be possible to defeat him.